Domestic

Gov't Stresses Safety Management to Local Self-Driving Car Developers

The South Korean government has urged local developers of autonomous vehicles to thoroughly check safety management following a recent fatal accident in the U.S. involving a self-driving car.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on Friday held a meeting with representatives of 18 companies and universities testing autonomous vehicles, including Hyundai Motor, Seoul National University, Samsung Electronics and SK Telecom.

Currently a total of 44 self-driving cars developed by those organizations are running on South Korean roads with temporary licenses issued by the government since February of 2016.

Kim Chae-gyu, who handles autonomous vehicle-related issues at the ministry, said although there has been no related accident in the nation so far, the government wants local developers to be alert amid growing safety concerns of autonomous cars.

Last week, a pedestrian was killed by an autonomous vehicle being tested by Uber in the U.S. state of Arizona.